Draft device.



G. P. HANSEN.

DRAFT DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APB. 9, 19'08. v 941,920. Patented Nov. 3o, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

mnntor Warum.

atmnsy C. P. HANSEN.

DRAFT DEVICE. j rrLIoATton FILED APB.9,1908.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

wihnona UNTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES P. HANSEN, OF EVAN, MINNESOTA.

DRAFT DEVICE.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES P. HANSEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Evan, in the county of Brown, State of Minnesota, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Draft Devices; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to draft devices for buggies and other lightvehicles and more particularly to that class of draft devices whichinclude thills which are offset with respect to the vehicle. I havefound in such constructions that considerable lateral strain is exertedupon the thills and the cross bar to which they are secured and Itherefore have in view, in carrying out my invention, the provision ofmeans for counteracting this lateral strain and for otherwisestrengthening the structure.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view of theinvention, Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof, Fig. S is a bottom planview, and, Fig. et is a detail perspective view of the strengtheningstructure removed from the thills, the thill bows, and the cross bar.

As shown in the drawings, the draft device comprises a cross bar 10 uponwhich is mounted the usual whifi'le-tree 11 and secured at their forwardends to the cross bar and projecting rearwardly and curved downwardlytherefrom are thill bows 12, the connection of the bows with the crossbar being had by mortising the cross bar at one end and adjacent theother end and forming the said forward ends of the bows with tenonswhich are fitted in the mortises.

The thills proper are indicated by the numeral 18 and they are securedin the same manner at their rear ends to the cross bar 10, they beinghowever offset to the left hand side with respect to the thill bows asclearly shown in the top plan and bottomplan views of the drawings.Owing to the fact that the thills are offset with respect to their bows,it will be readily appreciated that in actual use, considerable lateralstrain will be exerted upon the thills and in fact upon the entiredevice and especially at the points Specification of Letters Patent.

Application led April 9, 1908.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

Serial No. 426,088.

of connection of the thills and the bows with the cross bar, and inorder to strengthen the device and overcome any such strain, I haveprovided means which will now be described.

The strengthening means above referred to is in the form of a frame andbraces which are associated with the frame, and the frame comprises aportion 111 which is bolted or otherwise secured, preferably by the samebolts which pass through the tenons of the thills and their bows, uponthe under side of the cross bar 10. Formed integral with the forwardedge of this portion 14 are extensions 15 which are two in number, oneextension extending beneath each of the thills 13 at the iear endsthereof and being bolted thereto by means of bolts 1G. At its rear edge,the portion 14 is formed with exten sions 17 which extend rearwardly andthence downwardly against the under side of the thill bows 12 and attheir lower ends are bent as at 18 to form thill eyes which are ofcourse received between the spaced ears of the thill coupling of theaxle-tree of the vehicle in connection with which the draft device isused.

The braces mentioned above are indicated by the numeral 19 and thesebraces are in the form of flat bars and are two in number one connectingeach of the thill bows and the corresponding thill. Each of the braces19 is secured at its rear end to the under side of the correspondingthill bow 12 and is thence directed diagonally forward and secured atits forward end by means of the bolts 16, to the under side of thecorresponding thill 13. It will thus be seen that both of the bracesextend in the same direction and in fact they are parallel with respectto each other and effectually counteract any lateral strain which isexerted upon the device.

lVhat is claimed, is

A draft device comprising a cross bar, thill bows secured to the crossbar, thills secured to the cross bar out of alinement with respect tothe bows, a strengthening frame comprising a cross bar which extendsbeneath and is secured to the underside of the first mentioned crossbar, forward extensions formed integral with the cross bar of thestrengthening frame and secured to the underside of the thills at theirrear end, rearward extensions formed integral with said cross bar of thestrengthening frame and secured to the underside 0f the bows, saidrearward extensions having at their lower ends thill eyes, and adiagonal brace connected at one end to eaoh of the rearward extensionsbehind the cross bar of the strengthening frame and at the other endeach being connected to the respective forward exteni sion of thestrengthening frame.

In testimony whereof7 I affix my signature, in presence of twoWitnesses.

CHARLES P. HANSEN. 'Witnessesz L. A. ZELLMER,

W. H. HARTMAN.

